North Carolina Only Southern State Lacking Marriage Amendment

With the ongoing debate over marriage definition in the courts and through popular referendums, as of 2012 North Carolina is the only state in the South lacking a marriage amendment to its state constitution.

Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Mississippi passed popular referendums along with seven other states in November 2004. When voters in Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia approved amendments from 2005 to 2008, North Carolina found itself alone.

Tami Fitzgerald, chairwoman of Vote FOR Marriage NC, a pro-marriage amendment organization, told The Christian Post that the delay was due to the state's General Assembly.

"The previous leadership of the North Carolina General Assembly kept the Marriage Protection Amendment bottled up in committee," said Fitzgerald.

"[Their actions were] denying the people in our state the right to vote on this important issue and leaving marriage in our state vulnerable to being redefined by an activist judge"...